Daily Archives: June 1, 2009

Thoughts on the new Halo 3: ODST trailer

Bungie released a new trailer for Halo 3: ODST today at the E3 trade conference. I had a quick chance to watch it over lunch and it looks like there are some interesting bits:

* You can hold 3 standard greadades at once
* Landing from a jump incurs a health damage like the original Halo. There’s a health indicator at the top of the HUD that drops slightly when you hit the ground.
* You’ll use terminals and the Superintendent to navigate the city and possible do game saves
* Swapping weapons is done with the “B” button and not the “Y” button. Wonder what new function we might get? Since you’re not a Spartan, will “melee” even apply?
* Around 0:22 in to the trailer, you’ll see that you land separate from your team and are stuck somewhere high, forcing you to blow the hatch and jump down.
* HUD has a traditional compass and waypoint indicator like war-type FPS games like Call of Duty.
* Night vision adds outlines to highlight object shapes.
* What’s up with the “Remember Reach” spraypainted on the wall?
* Note at about 00:37 in to the trailer, the ODST trooper accesses the Superintendent through a data terminal that looks like a payphone. That’s got to be a way to leave messages for your buddies (so you know where to meet) and do mundane save tasks or get a map. Anyone remember the terminal behavior in Marathon? Kinda like that.
* At 1:13 in the trailer, you see a bit of footage from Firefight. Note the list of modifier skulls with the enabled one highlighted. If you’re in to gaming for score, Firefight is for you.